KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 8 — After multiple false starts, Health Minister Dzulkefly Ahmad announced last Friday that he would seek Cabinet approval to raise the on-call allowance for doctors and dentists.
The Ministry of Health’s (MOH) human resource division told the Health parliamentary special select committee last February that increasing on-call allowance (ETAP) rates by RM55 to RM65 per shift across the board is estimated to cost RM75 million to RM80 million a year.
Medical/ dental officers and specialist medical/ dental officers are currently paid ETAP of RM220 and RM250 per shift on weekends respectively. On weekdays, the on-call allowance is set at RM200 and RM230 per shift respectively.
Doctors’ groups equate the RM220 weekend on-call claims rate to RM9.16 per hour for a 24-hour shift, less than the pay for fast-food workers.
With little fiscal room for maneuvering, the government might have difficulties finding ways to pay for doctors’ on-call allowance raise.
Since Malaysia’s public health care system is already underfunded, the money for health workers’ on-call claims increase should not be taken from MOH’s existing allocations. Any increase should be reserved for health expenditure.
Based on back-of-the-envelope calculations, CodeBlue estimates that a 50 per cent cut to two items of government expenditure – fixed allowances for Members of Parliament and existing pensions for retired members of the administration and Members of Parliament – will be able to generate more than RM80 million for doctors.
(For reference in this article, MPs denote Dewan Rakyat members, while Members of Parliament comprise both MPs and senators).
The Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) said in a statement last March that the total income of an MP could reach RM30,000 to RM40,000 a month, including a fixed monthly allowance of RM25,700. (An MP receives a monthly allowance instead of a salary).
According to Kini News Lab, an MP’s monthly allowance includes RM16,000 in basic allowance, RM2,500 entertainment allowance, and RM4,800 travel allowance, fuel, toll, and driver. A senator’s monthly allowance includes an RM11,000 basic allowance, RM2,000 entertainment allowance, and RM3,200 travel allowance, fuel, toll, and driver (these three allowances total RM16,200 a month). Members of Parliament are entitled to multiple other allowances too.
Let’s target MPs’ fixed monthly allowance of RM25,700 and senators’ three monthly allowances of RM16,200. For 222 MPs, their fixed allowance costs RM68,464,800 a year, while the three allowances for 70 senators cost RM13,608,000 annually.
Combined, these fixed allowances for Members of Parliament total RM82,072,800 a year. A 50 per cent cut will generate about RM41 million in savings.
Cutting MPs’ fixed monthly allowances of RM25,700 by half would result in each MP making at least RM12,850 a month. This is 656 per cent higher than Malaysia’s RM1,700 monthly minimum wage.
As MPs typically use their income for party contributions and to run an office, the government can make up for the 50 per cent cut to lawmakers’ fixed allowances by redistributing the RM4 million annual parliamentary allocation for each government MP to all 222 MPs equally. These constituency development funds will be more than enough for legislators to hire staff and run service centres.
On party contributions derived from an MP’s wages (certain parties take up to 20 per cent), the 50 per cent cut can be replaced by political parties raising money from supporters, instead of continuing the unethical practice of dipping into taxpayer-funded MP remuneration.
Both the United Kingdom and United States clearly separate sources of funding for parliamentary/congressional work (public funding) and political/party activity (donor contributions).
Now that we’ve gotten MPs’ potential concerns out of the way, where do we look for another RM39 million for doctors?
According to the Ministry of Finance’s (MOF) Estimated Federal Expenditure 2025, existing pensions for members of the administration and Members of Parliament were estimated to cost RM85 million this year, an increase from RM82.9 million last year.
The Members of Parliament (Remuneration) Act 1980 (Act 237) entitles members of the administration (ministers, deputy ministers, and parliamentary secretaries) and members of either House of Parliament, as well as the Speaker of the House of Representatives, to a pension after completing 36 months of service.
Kini News Lab estimates that MPs elected in the 14th and 15th general elections can expect monthly pensions ranging between RM5,500 and RM41,000.
A 50 per cent cut to RM85 million in existing annual pensions for retired members of the administration and Members of Parliament will result in savings of RM42.5 million.
Hence, RM42.5 million from halving existing pensions for retired ministers, deputy ministers, MPs, and senators, plus another RM41 million from halving the fixed allowances of members of the Dewan Rakyat and Dewan Negara, will generate RM83.5 million a year – more than enough to cover the RM80 million to increase doctors’ and dentists’ on-call allowance, with some spare change.
Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim reportedly said in 2023 that abolishing or reducing the pensions of Cabinet members would require amendments to the Federal Constitution.
Since lawmakers on both sides of the divide have repeatedly expressed concern for the welfare of health care workers, MPs and senators can put their money where their mouth is (literally) by supporting whatever legislative amendments needed to cut their own allowances and pensions for effect next year, besides the existing pensions of former lawmakers.
Even though Anwar’s administration commands two-thirds majority of Parliament, bipartisan support from government and Opposition MPs (and senators) will show health workers and the general public that politicians aren’t just paying lip service.
The government has also shown its efficiency in drafting bills quickly, so it should be able to table the necessary bills to amend Act 237 and the Federal Constitution, if needed, in the upcoming Dewan Rakyat meeting, during which Budget 2026 will also be presented.
Following violent protests across Indonesia, President Prabowo Subianto recently pledged to revoke lawmakers’ perks, including a controversial US$3,000 monthly housing allowance that is nearly 10 times the Jakarta minimum wage.
While Malaysian doctors are unlikely to organise similar protests, another failure by Anwar’s administration to raise their stagnant on-call allowance across board (without tying it to some “pilot project”) will probably worsen the medical fraternity’s already low morale.
Dzulkefly’s statement on Friday about the on-call allowance, which listed 21 allowances that health workers are entitled to, infuriated doctors. Malaysian Medical Association (MMA) Schomos pointed out that some of the listed allowances are applicable to non-doctors, some are applicable only to a small number of doctors, some are not applicable at all to junior doctors, while some have been reduced by up to 60 per cent of previous amounts.
Before legislators react with outrage at a proposal to cut their wages, CodeBlue’s proposal merely targets specific allowances with a 50 per cent cut: fixed allowances for MPs and three allowances for senators, not all their eligible allowances.
Nor are we proposing a restriction of elected representatives to only one pension; just a 50 per cent cut to their overall pensions funded by the federal government.
To quote UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s speech in August 2024, ahead of the UK government’s budget in October, “Those with the broadest shoulders should bear the heavier burden.”
If politicians have other ideas on how to fund doctors’ RM80 million on-call allowance increase, then they should make their proposals. But the government cannot claim that there is “no money” to pay for it.
“At the end of the day, brain drain is worsening and if this continues, the rakyat will suffer. Is Malaysian health care worth it?” MMA Schomos wrote on Facebook last Friday.
